Bwah-ha-ha!  aota and I finally got around to playing Karaoke Revolution.  (It was the Dance Party version.)  Oh, man, what a fun game!

I should note that I've never sang Karaoke before.  It's popular here in the US, but most of the time, it's something you do in front of a whole crowd of strangers in a smokey bar.  A few bigger cities have karaoke boxes like those found in Japan, but not here in NE Iowa.  Neither one of us are particularly good at singing, either.  I used to sing in the choir at church when I was growing up, and in madrigal groups when I worked at the Ren Faire (and later in the SCA), and Bob has sang a bit here and there, but has no formal experience.  He does however, have a good memory for songs, whereas I tend to forget the words very quickly.  So, on the whole, we're both fairly indifferent singers.

But that's okay!  Because this game is so fun it doesn't matter if you suck at singing!

The character designer thing was hilarious.  I tried to make my character look somewhat like me (okay, maybe a bit thinner).  Bob just picked out something that looked completely different from him.  I was kinda curious to see what he'd pick, given his own inclinations without input from me.  The clothes were fun, too, although I wish there were more styles to choose from that didn't involve showing one's belly-button.

At first, we tried to pick songs we knew and sing them, but the real fun is when you let the system pick the songs randomly and you have to make do.  At one point, I ended up just making up words to a song (an ode to Tegan, one of our cats, who was completely unimpressed with my tribute) and still scored decently.  Go figure.

We kept the scoring at medium, because this is supposed to be fun, right?  Trying to find a decent octave for songs out of our natural vocal range was difficult, but at least we weren't judged on how strong our voices were.  It seemed that if you keep the rhythm, you can do okay.  I did make one perfect score on Dust in the Wind, because it had been a huge hit song when I was a kid. Kansas rocks! Actually, the entire Point of Know Return album was brilliant.  (Ignore the god-awful 70's fashion and bad hair and just listen to the music.)

We picked up the American Idol version of the game, too, and will probably play that at a later time (when we get better at singing?).  I'm thinking about picking up the Country Music version of the game, too.  Not that I love country music all that much, but I grew up listening to it, and can probably sing it better.  Country songs tend to be less diva-esque than pop music and therefore easier to sing.  Plus, I'm from Texas and have the accent for it, yee-haw.  I kinda wish the Japanese version was compatible with the US system.  It would be fun to learn some Japanese songs this way.

We didn't play for very long, though.  Neither one of us are used to singing and it doesn't take much to get a sore throat.  But I'm sure we'll be doing this again soon.

Oooh, someone put up a video of Carry On Wayward Son, too.  The 70's had horrible clothes, but the music was great. 

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Note to self: I really need to make myself a "Music" icon at some point. 

In the battle against melancholy, there are few weapons that equal the effectiveness of Disney films.  Today, it was Disney's 1997 classic Hercules that I turned to for solace.

I'll be the first to admit that Hercules was not one of the best animated films of Disney's late-20th-century renaissance.  Other films like Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Hunchback of Notre Dame far surpass the film, both in animation quality, acting and musical score.  But nevertheless, I like Hercules.  From the odd character designs that reminded one of Greek vases, to those gospel-singing Muses, to James Woods' sardonic performance as Hades, this quirky little film is a whole lotta fun, even if the story they tell has very little resemblense to the actual Hercules myth.  (But that's okay, because, let's face it, the mythical Herc was somewhat of a brute.)

But by far, the thing I love most about this movie is the song "Go the Distance", which ended up being a huge hit for singer Michael Bolton, who BTW  actually looks much, much better with his hair cut short than with that super-mullet that he sported through much of the 1980s & 90s.  The song got played to death on the radio during the late 1990s (so many people detest it), but I couldn't get enough of it.  It always made my heart soar to listen to it, especially near the end when that unexpected fanfare hits.

I was surfing YouTube, trying to see if anyone had posted a clip from the Japanese version of the movie, but had no luck.  However, I did run across this incredible rendition of the song, which was from a Malaysian TV idol show (I think?).  Couldn't place the language of the singers' names--one sounded Chinese, the other two Muslim?  Anyway, dang, those three could really diva!

Now I have to stop trawling because aota is getting really sick of hearing this song, even though he's in the next room. :-P

Also, for those of you who haven't taken a gander at cleolinda's latest parody of the movie 300 (from which I shameless stole the title of this post), please hie yourselves hither and enjoy.  No, you don't need to have seen the movie to appreciate it, although you might want to check out the preview so you know what the characters look like.

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